Privacy Policy

Veolia’s Australia and New Zealand business is comprised of Veolia Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, Comgen Australia Pty Ltd, Veolia Water Australia Pty Ltd, Veolia Energy Services Australia Pty Ltd and their related bodies corporate. In this policy, these entities will be collectively referred to as “Veolia”. At Veolia we are committed to protecting and maintaining the privacy, accuracy and security of the personal information of all our business associates and clients.

 

What personal information do we collect and hold?

When used in this privacy policy, the term “personal information” has the meaning given to it in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), and includes “personal information” as defined in the Privacy Act 2020 (New Zealand). In general terms, it is any information that can be used to personally identify you. For example, this might include your name, address, telephone number, email address and profession or occupation. If the information we collect personally identifies you, or you are reasonably identifiable from it, the information will be considered personal information.

We will only collect personal information necessary for one or more of our business functions. We may also collect personal information where that collection is required by law. This may include your: 

 

  • personal details, such as your name, likeness and contact information;

  • account details of banking and/or credit card accounts that you provide to us;

  • login information, such as usernames and IP addresses, you provide when accessing our websites or otherwise through the use of our online presence;

  • other personally identifiable information, such as unique government identifiers, where you provide us with that information directly through our websites or indirectly through the use of our websites or online presence, through our representatives or otherwise; and

  • any additional information relating to you that you provide to us directly through our websites or indirectly through the use of our websites or online presence, through our representatives, our customer service centre, customer surveys or visits by our representatives from time to time.

Additionally, we are required by law to collect and disclose certain information relating to reportable workplace health and safety incidents. 

 

How do we collect your information?

We collect your personal information directly from you unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so. We may collect in ways including: 

  • through your access and use of our website; 

  • by phone, email, face to face or social media interactions between you and our representatives; 

  • from third parties including credit reporting agencies and law enforcement agencies and other government entities; and 

  • when you complete a purchase order. 

We do not generally collect any sensitive information.

 

How do we use your information?

We will limit the use and disclosure of your personal information to:

  • Carrying out our business, which includes:

    • providing products and services to you and sending communications requested by you;

    • answering enquiries and providing information or advice about existing and new services;

    • the administrative, marketing, planning, product or service development, quality control and research purposes of Veolia, its related bodies corporate, and service providers; and

    • keeping your records and contact details up to date.

  • Fulfilling any legal requirements such as reporting requirements to external agencies or to law enforcement agencies.

  • If you are one of our customers, we may use your information to offer you products and services that we believe meet your needs. However, you can notify us at any time if you do not wish to receive these offers.

  • We will not share, sell or trade your information to any non-related companies outside of Veolia.

In common with many organisations, we contract services from external parties, such as sub-contractors or other select organisations who perform certain functions or operations for us including web hosting providers, IT systems administrators, mailing houses, couriers, payment processors, debt collections and professional advisors such as accountants, solicitors, business advisors and consultants. Your information may be provided to them on a confidential basis for the sole purpose of performing the contracted services on our behalf. We instruct these companies to exercise the same standard of care as we do ourselves, so that they cannot provide this information to anyone else.

 

Cookies 

In some cases we may also collect your personal information through the use of cookies.  When you access our website, we may send a “cookie” (which is a small summary file containing a unique ID number) to your computer.  

Our cookies do not collect personal information, but they do enable us to recognise your computer and keep track of products or services that you view so that, if you consent, we can send you news about those products or services.  

We also use cookies to measure traffic patterns in the aggregate.  We use this to research our visitors’ habits so that we can improve our online products and services.  We may log IP addresses to analyse trends, administer the website, track users movements and gather broad demographic information.

If you do not wish to receive cookies, you can set your browser so that your computer does not accept them.

 

What happens if we cannot collect your personal information?

If you do not provide us with the personal information described above, some or all of the following may happen: 

  • we may not be able to provide the requested products or services to you, either to the same standard or at all; 

  • we may not be able to provide you with information about products and services that you may want, including information about offers and promotions; or

  • we may be unable to tailor the content of our websites to your preferences and your experience of our websites may not be as enjoyable or useful. 

 

Social networks 

Users can share pages that concern them on social networks by clicking on the share buttons.

Collection of data via social networks share buttons is subject to the privacy policies of these third parties. Please read the social networks’ policies to find out how your personal data is used.

 

Direct Marketing Materials

We may send you direct marketing communications and information about our products and services that we consider may be of interest to you.  These communications may be sent in various forms, including mail, SMS, fax and email, in accordance with applicable marketing laws, such as the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) and the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 (NZ). 

If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so.  You may opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us at any time by contacting us using the Privacy Officer details set out in this policy, or by using the opt-out facilities provided in the marketing communications you receive from us. We will then ensure that your name is removed from our mailing list.

We may also share your personal information with related companies in the Veolia group, who will exercise similar standards of care in relation to your information.

 

Your information may be disclosed to entities outside Australia and New Zealand

We may disclose personal information to our related bodies corporate and third party suppliers and service providers located overseas for some of the purposes listed above.

We take reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipients of your personal information do not breach the privacy obligations relating to your personal information.

We may disclose your personal information to entities located outside of Australia and New Zealand, including the following:  

  • our related bodies corporate, located in France, United Kingdom, and other countries in which the Veolia group has operations; and

  • our data hosting and other IT service providers, located in the United States, and the European Union.

 

Your information is secure

We store personal information in a combination of secure computer storage facilities and paper-based files and other records. In doing so, we have taken reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. 

As our website is linked to the internet, and the internet is inherently insecure, we cannot provide any assurance regarding the security of transmission of information you communicate to us online.  We also cannot guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted over the internet. Accordingly, any personal information or other information which you transmit to us online is transmitted at your own risk.

We will, with your help, keep your personal information accurate, complete and up to date. Additionally, we take reasonable steps to securely destroy personal information when we no longer need it.

 

You have access to your information

Following a request, we will provide you with a copy of personal information we hold about you, in accordance with our obligations under applicable privacy and data protection laws. Please note that there are some circumstances set out in applicable privacy and data protection laws where we may refuse your request.

If you establish that the personal information we hold about you is not accurate, complete or up to date, and we are reasonably able to change the personal information, we will correct our records as necessary. If we do not make the correction, we will take reasonable steps to note on the personal information that you requested the correction.

We will promptly acknowledge and investigate any complaints about the way we manage personal information.

 

Contacting Us

If you have any questions about this policy, if you wish to update or access the information we hold about you, or if you wish to make a related complaint, please contact the Veolia Privacy Officer via email: [email protected] or by phone: +61 2 8571 0000.  

We will treat your requests and complaints confidentially. Our representative will contact you within a reasonable time after receipt of your request or complaint to discuss your concerns and outline options regarding how they may be resolved. We will aim to ensure that your complaint is resolved in a timely and appropriate manner. 

 

Changes to our privacy policy

We may change this privacy policy from time to time. Any updated versions of this privacy policy will be posted on our website.

 

Last updated 04/05/2023